too long

Sorry its been way too long since I posted on here. Life has been busy, and there wasn't much news to share regarding the adoption. Lots of waiting, praying and waiting some more. So I hope you all had a great holiday season and are as excited about the NEW YEAR as we are! Bring it on 2013!

We FINALLY have an appointment with our caseworker, Jan 7. We also have tentative invitation to join the MAPP classes through the agency that start Jan 8. I say tentatively since they cant officially extend the offer until after initial in person meeting with the case worker. BUT since they start the same week there wasn't time to go through the formalities they said, so they wanted us to RSVP, etc and secure childcare, etc as needed. (MAPP classes are 30 hours of parental training required by the state of NC for foster parents Or in our case parents that wish to adopt children that have been in foster care). We will complete our homestudy along with our MAPP classes throughout the month of Jan.

So if all goes as they say it will #andtheylikeusenoughonthe7thtoallowustogototheclasses we will have a very busy month of January, but Feb 2 will complete our MAPP classes and be on our way to finding the little princess that needs us, to complete our family! Thankfully we have great friends who have agreed to help with Makenna all day every Saturday in Jan, and at least one night a week (sometimes two!) Thanks in advance to Nick and Mary, Tom and Carrie and Amy and George!

So we had been trying to decide what type of bunk beds we wanted, how to afford them, etc..we kept looking online at Craigslist, etc but just weren't ready or able to make the financial leap, not knowing when or how long the process was going to take. I decided to just try posting a wanted ad on a local recycling site I frequently place things for free on that we dont need #gottalovefreecycle and within two hours, yes i said two hours!! I got a response from a woman who had a set of bunk beds she was looking to get rid of, as her daughter wanted to update her room. I accepted and we made plans to go pick them up.....did I mention FREE....also turns out she has adopted 4 children from foster care!!! She was very nice.We were nervous we would have to make several trips since we dont own a truck, but figured it was worth it. We arrived to see the bunk beds (honestly assuming they were going to be cheapy ones but okay with that for the time being until we could afford higher quality ones for the long term)....much to our surprise they were real, solid wood, thick, sturdy bunk beds like the this end up style Id say....not cheapy type at all!!!! WHAT!? Jay and I and Makenna disassembled them and then they FIT INTO OUR CARS in one trip! Can you say WOW...Thanks GOD FOR THE AWESOME bunk beds. We still need to get two twin mattresses at a decent price, but that's much less of an obstacle!! So we now are the proud owners of a beautiful set of quality bunk beds (which sit in the garage waiting to be assembled when the time comes).

So now we patiently wait for Jan. 7 where we will try our best to be ourselves and meet with person who will decide if we are able to continue the adoption process!!

Heres a couple pics of our bunkbed adventure.